They weighed in on Renoir’s colors and why they liked them. They admired Bouguereau’s “Young Shepherdess” and wondered what the story behind the painting might be. They leaned in close to admire Monet’s brush strokes and backed away for a better look at Rubens’ opulent “Allegory of Eternity.”

As they strolled through the San Diego Museum of Art’s European Collection, the men and women on this afternoon tour looked like any other bunch of art lovers on an enriching cultural outing. And thanks to the “Memories at the Museums” program for people with Alzheimer’s and their families, that is exactly what they were.

“People with Alzheimer’s get very isolated, and as their worlds get smaller and smaller, our lives get separated from these wonderful people,” said Lisa Snyder, director of quality of life programs at the UC San Diego Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “These tours are of great value to the whole public. There is a great feeling of belonging and purpose and dignity for people whose lives are getting more insular.”

Inspired by a similar program at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Snyder and the Shiley-Marcos center launched “Memories at the Museums” in 2006. The program pairs people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s and their caregivers with specially trained volunteer docents for monthly tours through one of four Balboa Park museums. The tours — which rotate among the San Diego Museum of Art, the Mingei International Museum, the Timken Museum of Art and the Museum of Photographic Arts — are held on the second Friday of the month. The program is free; the experience is invaluable.

“Art is something he really enjoys,” said Tom Kuge, who has been bringing his 85-year-old father, Shigeru, on the tours since 2010. “This does seem to cheer him up. He is harder to bring out into public now. Even if we bring him to stores, he doesn’t interact. But he is familiar with these people and the environment, so he is more willing to talk.”

For the first three years, the tours were held quarterly at the San Diego Museum of Art, and Monika Hseu and Richard Butcher were among the first docents trained to lead them. A retired physiological psychologist, Butcher signed on because matters of the brain still fascinate him. Hseu volunteered because her father died of Alzheimer’s, and she wanted to give back to patients and their families. Neither of them expected to learn as much as they have, or to like it as much as they do.

“Although it is a challenge, I look forward to it because I know I’ll have a good audience,” the 70-year-old Hseu said. “Some of the people are artists, so they can tell you something about the art. You can have a lot of fun on these tours. I like the way we get educated at the same time.”

Unlike the docents’ tours for the general public, the Alzheimer’s-friendly tours are less about imparting knowledge than about encouraging participants to share feelings and observations. The tours are slower and less scripted, as docents try to jump-start conversations and maybe shake loose a precious remembrance or two.